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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Ask the Readers: The Most Efficient Part of Any University Is ....?

The Parking Police. This is a hard lesson I learned in graduate school, where fees and tickets went up even during/because of economic downturns. This has continued to be the case wherever I have taught. There are all kinds of rules one can overlook or bend at a college campus, but staying a few minutes too late in a metered spot or parking in the wrong zone are going to be punished.

Is there any other part of university administration is generally quite efficient?

When I talk about bureaucratic politics in my classes, I always ask them which part of the school's bureaucracy drove them the most crazy. No consensus at McGill, but that shows what a low tuition rate will do. At all the places I taught in the US, the answer was always the financial aid office.

Our parking system is mixed. They're pretty efficient at handing out tickets, but they also give out Faculty/Staff hangtags like candy to students (I assume they're relatives of F/S). So, if we're not in the parking lot by 8:30 or 8:45, we're relegated to the parking deck.

Our payroll is actually pretty efficient, BUT they're bizarre in what will be allowed or not allowed. Given Alabama's past, they're quite sensitive to proper spending, which is good, but their enforcement sometimes has no rhyme or reason.

BY FAR the most inefficient group involves International Students/Abroad programs. A host of reasons explain this one, but it seems that anytime there's contact with things international, we do it poorly... very unfortunate.

Stephen M. Saideman

Intro

Greetings! I am a political scientist, specializing in International Relations, my research and teaching focus on ethnic conflict and civil-military relations. I watch way too much TV, and I like movies as well so I tend to write about both and find IR stuff in pop culture. I rant alot about American politics and sometimes about Canadian politics. I like to take ideas I once learned a long time ago and apply them to whatever strikes my fancy.